It doesn't take long into Tales and Dreams before Kwoon unviels its influences.
"Intro" may through the listener for a loop (perhaps a snapshot from Scars of
the Midwest?), and even "I Lived on the Moon," with it's gloriously ascending
guitar line, may still leave us scratching our heads. Some very somber vocals
are even added to the mix to further complicate the matter; yes, Kwoon is a
post-rock band that likes to sing on occasion. Then we come to "Blue Melody" and
as the slow, celestial ambience slowly begins to dissolve, the pace of the
guitar quickens and the drums flare to life, signaling the beginning of the
triumphant finale. The sextet sure knows how to pack a powerful punch, a punch
which sends me back listening to Agaetis Byrjun. Tales and Dreams is not nearly
as ambitious as Sigur Ros' masterpiece, but over the course of 40 minutes the
band lays down 10 tracks, all of which are easily accessible. Those who find the
Icelandic quartet too pretentious might do tell to check out Tales and Dreams,
in fact. Kwoon's take is much more guitar oriented, favoring a reliance on
tremolos to surge through murky ambience and digging deeply into the reserves
when needed. "Tenkleh Skofa" displays the cleverness of the act, layering loops
in opposing directions to juxtapose the light and dark aspects of the music
while stitching it together well enough to almost convince you it's all in a
linear fashion before the heavy reversal thump becomes apparent. The artistic
merits of the music are never once compromised through the album's entirety, but
at the same time the band is very conscience of who it's playing for -- an
audience.
For what it's worth, Kwoon does well to not delve too heavily into a single
source of inspiration and presents a well-sampled and varied taste of modern
music. Conceptually, the album works well, and musically it not only highlights
the conceptual theme, but also stands very strongly all by itself. In my book,
we call that "success."